Neonatal stroke is as frequent as stroke in the elderly, but many pathophysiological injury aspects are distinct in neonates, including immune signaling. While myeloid cells can traffic into the brain via multiple routes, the choroid plexus (CP) has been identified as a uniquely educated gate for immune cell traffic during health and disease. To understand the mechanisms of myeloid cell trafficking via the CP and their influence on neonatal stroke, we characterized the phenotypes of CP-infiltrating myeloid cells after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) in neonatal mice of both sexes in relation to blood-brain barrier permeability, injury, microglial activation and CX3CR1-CCR2 signaling, focusing on the dynamics early after reperfusion. We demonstrate rapid recruitment of multiple myeloid phenotypes in the CP ipsilateral to the injured brain, including inflammatory CD45+CD11b+Ly6chighCD86+, beneficial CD45+CD11b+Ly6clowCD206+, and CD45+CD11b+Ly6clowLy6ghigh cells, but only minor leukocyte infilneonatal stroke in relation to blood-brain barrier integrity, injury, microglial activation and signaling via CX3CR1 and CCR2 receptors, or following direct TLR2 stimulation. Ischemia-reperfusion triggered marked unilateral CX3CR1-CCR2 dependent accumulation of diverse leukocyte subpopulations in the CP without inducing extravascular albumin leakage or major leukocyte infiltration into the brain. Disrupted CX3CR1-CCR2 signaling was neuroprotective in part by attenuating monocyte and neutrophil trafficking. Understanding the migratory patterns of CP-infiltrating myeloid cells with intact and disrupted CX3CR1-CCR2 signaling could identify novel therapeutic targets to protect neonatal brain. Copyright © 2020 Rayasam et al.Multiplex PCR panels are powerful tools for rapid pathogen identification in patients with respiratory tract infections (1-6).…. Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology.We evaluated six commercial molecular tests targeting M. pneumoniae the BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel (RP), the Meridian Alethia Mycoplasma Direct, the GenMark ePlex Respiratory Pathogen Panel (RPP), the Luminex NxTAG RPP, the ELITech ELITe InGenius Mycoplasma MGB Research Use Only Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and the SpeeDx Resistance Plus MP. Laboratory-developed PCR assays at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used as reference standards. Among 428 specimens, 212 were designated confirmed-positives for M. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/unc8153.html pneumoniae The highest clinical sensitivities were found with the InGenius (99.5%) and the FilmArray RP (98.1%). The Resistance Plus MP identified 93.3% of the confirmed-positive specimens, whereas 83.6%, 64.6%, and 55.7% were identified by the ePlex RPP, NxTAG RPP, and Mycoplasma Direct assays, respectively. There was no significant difference between the sensitivity of the reference methods and that of the FilmArray RP and InGenius assays, but the remaining four assays detected significantly fewer positive specimens (p less then 0.05). Specificities of all assays were 99.5 - 100%. The Resistance Plus MP detected macrolide resistance in 27/33 specimens resulting in a sensitivity of 81.8%. This study provides the first large scale comparison of commercial molecular assays for detection of M. pneumoniae in the United States and identified clear differences among their performance. Additional studies are necessary to explore the impact of variable test performance on patient outcome. Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology.Campylobacter jejuni is one of the leading causes of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. In the United States, New Hampshire was one of the 18 states that reported cases in the 2016-2018 multistate outbreak of multidrug resistant C. jejuni Here, we aimed to elucidate the baseline diversity of the wider New Hampshire C. jejuni population during the outbreak. We used genome sequences of 52 clinical isolates sampled in New Hampshire in 2017, including one of the two isolates from the outbreak. Results revealed a remarkably diverse population composed of at least 28 sequence types, which are mostly represented by one or few strains. Comparison with 249 clinical C. jejuni from other states showed frequent phylogenetic intermingling, suggesting lack of geographical structure and minimal local diversification within the state. Multiple independent acquisitions of resistance genes from five classes of antibiotics characterize the population, with 47/52 (90.4%) of the genomes carrying at least one horizontally acquired resistance gene. Frequently recombining genes include those associated with heptose biosynthesis, colonization and stress resistance. We conclude that the diversity of clinical C. jejuni in New Hampshire in 2017 was driven mainly by the co-existence of phylogenetically diverse antibiotic resistant lineages, widespread geographical mixing, and frequent recombination. This study provides an important baseline census of the standing pan-genomic variation and drug resistance to aid the development of a statewide database for epidemiological studies and clinical decision making. Continued genomic surveillance will be necessary to accurately assess how the population of C. jejuni changes over the long term. Copyright © 2020 Park et al.Nearly 400,000 people worldwide are known to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 beginning in December 2019. The virus has now spread to over 168 countries including the United States, where the first cluster of cases was observed in the Seattle metropolitan area in Washington. Given the rapid increase in the number of cases in many localities, the availability of accurate, high-throughput SARS-CoV-2 testing is vital to efforts to manage the current public health crisis. In the course of optimizing SARS-CoV-2 testing performed by the University of Washington Clinical Virology Lab (UW Virology Lab), we evaluated assays using seven different primer/probe sets and one assay kit. We found that the most sensitive assays were those that used the E-gene primer/probe set described by Corman et al. (Eurosurveillance 25 (3), 2020, https//doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045) and the N2 set developed by the CDC (Division of Viral Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020, https//www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/rt-pcr-panel-primer-probes.